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Massive sinkhole opens in Jacksonville, Florida


First Coast News
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 23:09 UTC
Florida sinkhole
© Erik Avanier
A massive sinkhole reported on the city's Westside Thursday night caused road closures near Ringhaver Park.

The sinkhole was reported in the 5300 block of 118th Street near Sundown Drive. JEA crews shut down the area as they worked to repair it through the night.

First Coast News sent crews to the scene and reported that a couple crew members were seen inside of the sinkhole.

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Red Flag

New study finds climate models exaggerated global warming from CO2 emissions up to 45%


Investors Business Daily
Wed, 25 Apr 2018 17:55 UTC
global warming
A new study published in a peer-reviewed journal finds that climate models exaggerate the global warming from CO2 emissions by as much as 45%. If these findings hold true, it's huge news. No wonder the mainstream press is ignoring it.

In the study, authors Nic Lewis and Judith Curry looked at actual temperature records and compared them with climate change computer models. What they found is that the planet has shown itself to be far less sensitive to increases in CO2 than the climate models say. As a result, they say, the planet will warm less than the models predict, even if we continue pumping CO2 into the atmosphere.

As Lewis explains: "Our results imply that, for any future emissions scenario, future warming is likely to be substantially lower than the central computer model-simulated level projected by the (United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), and highly unlikely to exceed that level.

How much lower? Lewis and Curry say that their findings show temperature increases will be 30%-45% lower than the climate models say. If they are right, then there's little to worry about, even if we don't drastically reduce CO2 emissions.
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Seismograph

Residents shocked by unusual 3.6 earthquake near Amherstburg, Ontario

Dave Waddell
Windsor Star
Thu, 19 Apr 2018 22:16 UTC
Amherstburg earthquake
© USGS
According to earthquaketracker.com, Thursday's shakedown was the strongest quake centred in Essex County going back to when records began in 1900

People from all corners of Windsor and Essex County were startled Thursday evening by violent shaking and an explosive sound like a train crashing into the house that was confirmed to be a 3.6 magnitude earthquake centred near Amherstburg.

The quake struck at 8:01 p.m. with an explosive sound and then rumbled on for about 20 seconds.

According to the website earthquaketracker.com, which uses U.S. Geological Survey data, Thursday's shakedown was the strongest quake felt centred in Essex County going back to when records began in 1900.
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Life Preserver

Flash floods kill nine teenagers in Israel


The Guardian
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 15:58 UTC
Israeli helicopter
© Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty ImagesAn Israeli military helicopter takes part in the search operation near Arava.


Police say 15 rescued and one still missing from group hiking south of Dead Sea

Nine Israeli teenagers who were hiking south of the Dead Sea have been killed by flash floods, Israel's rescue service said.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said 25 students in a pre-army course were "caught off guard" near Arava in southern Israel and some were "washed away" by heavy rains. He said 15 hikers were rescued and one was still missing. Eight of those killed were men and one was a woman; they were all 18.


Comment: Rpoerted a day earlier, also in Israel and Palestine:

Two killed as flash floods hit Israel and West Bank

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Rainbow

Rare 'fire rainbow' lights up sky in Salinas, California

Lisa Fernandez
Fox5
Wed, 25 Apr 2018 19:42 UTC
Fire rainbow in CA
© M. Jiminez
You don't see this every day. A man running in Pinnacles National Park in Salinas on Tuesday spotted a "fire rainbow" lighting up the sky.

He's friends with a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, who was thrilled to tweet out the picture along with the technical name of the phenomenon: circumhorizontal arc.

"They're unusual," said NWS Bay Area meteorologist Roger Gass. "My friend has only seen one once, and that was in Yosemite."

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Arrow Down

Eight homes evacuated after 10 sinkholes open up in Ocala, Florida

Curtis Jennings
wcjb.com
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 12:15 UTC
sinkholes
The City of Ocala is trying to figure out how to fix sinkholes now popping up in the fore ranch community.

The city's engineer says he's counted at least eight since Thursday morning.

Ocala Police say eight homes had to be evacuated as a precautionary measure due to more holes opening up since Wednesday evening.
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The city's engineer says they're keeping a close eye on the fore ranch community.

Sean Lanier said, "There was another sinkhole that opened up this morning in the roadway so now the roadway into that area has been closed also so that shows that there's even more activity continuing to spread, last night that wasn't present."

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Cloud Lightning

Indian state of Andhra Pradesh weathers rare event of 36,749 lightning strikes in 13 hours - at least 9 killed


Daily Sabah
Fri, 27 Apr 2018 09:21 UTC
Lightning
© AP
The southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has weathered an electrifying week, recording 36,749 lightning strikes in a 13-hour period, and suffering nine fatalities since Tuesday.

A 9-year-old girl was among those killed by lightning this week.

"Extreme weather patterns" sparked the unusually high number of strikes, the state disaster management authority said. Tuesday's phenomena is considered an anomaly, in comparison to some 30,000 recorded over the entire month of May last year in Andhra Pradesh.

India frequently experiences lightning strikes during heavy monsoon rains, which usually occur between June and September. However, this region of southern India often sees more lightning strikes before monsoon season begins, state emergency operation center head Kishan Sanku told the BBC.

Comment: Elsewhere fatalities caused by lightning strikes were recently reported in Thailand, Vietnam (where 3 were killed), Bangladesh ( 4 dead), Ethiopia (2 killed by single bolt), Uganda, Ghana and Somalia.

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Cloud Precipitation

Heavy rainfall causes chaos in Cairo, Egypt


Egyptian Streets
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 10:22 UTC
flood
A rare bout of heavy rainfall, thunder, and lightning has attacked Egypt's capital and other parts of the country for the second day running, causing flooding and incapacitating the city's traffic - and its people.

The state news agency, MENA, reported that the authorities were forced to close highways, with parts of Cairo's ring road being shut. As a result, some travellers had to spend the night in their cars.

Little seems to have been spared the vicious downpour, with videos emerging on social media of water pouring through the ceiling of Point 90 mall in Fifth Settlement, alongside parked cars which were almost completely submerged in water. In addition, buildings, houses, and bridges collapsed reports Egypt Independent and Egypt Today.

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Info

Earth's 'greatest two-year cooling event in a century' shock

James Delingpole
Breitbart
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 10:02 UTC
world
© Adam Berry/Getty
Our planet has just experienced the most extreme two-year cooling event in a century. But where have you seen this reported anywhere in the mainstream media?

You haven't, even though the figures are pretty spectacular. As Aaron Brown reports here at Real Clear Markets:
From February 2016 to February 2018 (the latest month available) global average temperatures dropped 0.56°C. You have to go back to 1982-84 for the next biggest two-year drop, 0.47°C—also during the global warming era. All the data in this essay come from GISTEMP Team, 2018: GISS Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP). NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (dataset accessed 2018-04-11 at https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/). This is the standard source used in most journalistic reporting of global average temperatures.

The 2016-18 Big Chill was composed of two Little Chills, the biggest five month drop ever (February to June 2016) and the fourth biggest (February to June 2017). A similar event from February to June 2018 would bring global average temperatures below the 1980s average. February 2018 was colder than February 1998.
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Attention

Volcano in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan erupts again


The Mainichi
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 17:15 UTC
Mount Io erupts in Ebino, Miyazaki Prefecture, on April 26, 2018.
© Japan Meteorological AgencyMount Io erupts in Ebino, Miyazaki Prefecture, on April 26, 2018.
A volcano in southwestern Japan erupted again on Thursday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The agency said last Friday that eruptions at Mt. Io, one of the Mt. Kirishima group of volcanoes straddling Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures, stopped after it spewed a plume of ash the previous day for the first time in 250 years.

The latest eruption occurred at around 6:15 p.m., the agency said.
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